ECB to end crisis-era stimulus in December

Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, said monthly purchases under quantitative easing would stop after the end of this yearAP

The European Central Bank will wrap up its €2.5 trillion bond-buying programme at the end of the year in the latest step towards bringing the emergency global stimulus that has been in place since the financial crisis to a close.

Mario Draghi, the ECB president, said that the monthly purchases under quantitative easing would halve to €15 billion in October and stop after December. The main interest rate will remain at -0.4 per cent “at least through the summer of 2019”, he added.

The governing council was unanimous on a decision that was both “state and date dependent”, Mr Draghi said. Withdrawal from quantitative easing, which was launched in March 2015, will be “subject to incoming data confirming our medium-term inflation outlook”.